Looking for PBS at CPTV

The one choice I have when it comes to the Sunday TV Book is what picture to put on the cover. And as in Presidential elections, the choice is limited. Still, I thought it'd be nice this week to highlight something from PBS.

After all, the "Masterpiece" production of "My Boy Jack" tonight features a familiar face in Daniel Radcliffe, the young actor known almost entirely for his role as Harry Potter in the series of movies. Here he is obviously playing someone older, with a mustache and steel rimmed glasses (instead of the plastic rimmed ones). Next to him is another faintly recognizable doyenne of Sunday night TV, Kim Cattrell, hardly seen from since "Sex and the City" concluded (and before the film of it opens next month).

A classy choice and no brainer as well except for one thing I hadn't even dreamed of:

The local PBS station wouldn't be showing it.

Pledge time is ironically the worst time for public TV. They put on junk that PBS would normally never put on, from embarrassing concerts by tribute bands to questionable New Age advise givers to straight out infomercial product-pushers. And they expect you to put out money to allow them to put on such programming.

No wonder there seem to be more pledge weeks built into the year than ever (and locally, every time a UConn basketball game is on, more begging to fill up the halftime).

That means the thoughtful, informative and unique programming of PBS is not seen locally, bumped to after hours (only if you watch on cable), or delayed for months if indeed it is ever seen at all.

No other network has its programming so ignored and mangled by local stations than PBS and CPTV has to be one of the worst.

I watched a half dozen decent shows coming on PBS this week and you won't see a one of them this week on Connecticut public TV. While they're showing things like a concert by a group that pretends to be the Beatles, Rain (something you wouldn't watch on public access even if your cousin played Ringo), you are not seeing the following:

I still ended up writing about all of these things this week not knowing if CPTV was putting them on or not. Luckily, most people in Connecticut can pick up a second PBS station, in New York, Boston, Providence or Springfield, though that's not a guarantee either (Springfield isn't showing "Planet Earth" either; they're having a wine auction).

And, as I only found out late Friday, CPTV isn't showing any of those shows this week.

They don't know quite what they will be showing, which seemed appalling way to run a channel.

Their listings inside the TV book almost all say "To be announced." It's not in their monthly listings for which you have to buy Connecticut Magazine to get. And the listings on their website are consistently wrong, and they've been wrong for months.

Do they just expect people to tune in and be delighted by whatever they decided to show?

Their contempt for the audience is astounding.

And yet, when viewers complain, as one from West Hartford did recently to the Chairman of the CPTV board David Johnson, she received this reply from the bow-tie wearing CEO Jerry Franklin:

I assume you are responding to the Hartford Courant critic, Roger Catlin, who often publishes CPTV'S late night schedule. Most of the shows that are scheduled at 2:00 a.m. or 3:00 a.m. will repeat of have already been scheduled in CPTV's prime time slot, but that little detail is often missed in Mr. Catlin's critique. (The Hartford Courantlikes to promote Channel 61, which is now owned by the same company asthe newspaper.)"

Do you see? It's all my fault.

Because I'm such a shill for Fox 61 (those folks didn't think so after my review of their Morning Show).

Actually, I don't even bother listing the 2 or 3 a.m. CPTV showings any more, since I don't trust the website or the station to actually show them.

CPTV doesn't like me much. Maybe because I covered the suit against them by a former contributor that was eventually settled out of court.

But I'll still write a lot about PBS shows and put them on the cover of the TV Week. Even when CPTV isn't showing them.

Since I moved to Connecticut in 1991 I've been appalled at the continuing decline of CPTV. In a previous blog comment here I've just plain asked: "Is there anyone competent running CPTV? Is Jerry Franklin really earning that over $200,000 salary?

What the heck is going on here? How could such a fine station be in such a miserable condition?

They "need" all that fundraising time on the air. How else to raise the funds to pay all the stuffed shirts in "senior management". Those folks salaries alone account for something like 5% of a 25 million dollar budget. Richard Blumenthal should launch an investigation immediately.

ABOUT

Roger Catlin is TV critic for the Hartford Courant and writes a daily column about what's on television called TV Eye. He is also on the board of the Television Critics Association. Before all of this, he was rock critic ... read more